Kerr-McGee
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The Kerr-McGee Corporation was an energy company involved in the exploration and production of oil and gas resources. The company, founded in 1929, had about 1.4 billion U.S. dollars in assets as of March 31, 2006.
On June 23, 2006, Houston-based Anadarko Petroleum Corporation agreed to acquire Kerr-McGee in an all-cash transaction totaling $3.4 billion. Kerr-McGee shareholders voted to approve the offer on August 10, 2006 and Kerr-McGee immediately ceased to exist as an independent entity. Many aspects of company procedure and policy (such as healthcare and benefits) will be retained until late 2006/early 2007. As a result of the takeover, all operations moved out of the State of Oklahoma, where Kerr-McGee employed approximately 200 people at its Oklahoma City headquarters.
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[edit] History
Kerr-McGee was initially focused in mostly off-shore oil exploration and production, being one of the first companies to use drillships in the Gulf of Mexico, and later one of the first companies to use a Spar type platform in the area. With the acquisition of the Oryx Energy Company of Dallas, Texas in 1999, Kerr-McGee gained more onshore assets, as well as significant assets in several foreign areas, most notably Algeria and western Kazakhstan. Later acquisitions of HS Resources and Westport established the base of operations in Denver, Colorado and added large resource areas throughout the Rocky Mountains.
Until 2005, Kerr-McGee had two major divisions: chemical and oil-related. On November 21, 2005, the chemical division of the company, based in Oklahoma City, was sold off by IPO as Tronox, thereby making Oklahoma City home to only the administrative side of Kerr-McGee, while all exploration and production management was located in Denver and Houston.
[edit] Locations
[edit] United States
Main operations centers in the US were the Rocky Mountains and the Gulf of Mexico region. Main offices were located in downtown Denver and the Greenspoint area of Houston.
Corporate headquarters were located in downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
[edit] Mainland China
Oil operations were a cooperation with CNOOC based in Bohai Bay, near Beijing, with offices in Beijing.
[edit] Other locations
Kerr-McGee and its subsidiaries formerly operated in western Kazakhstan, western Australia, and several other more minor locations around the world, though these ownings were sold off as part of a focus on domestic rather than international exploration.
[edit] Controversy
Kerr-McGee sued the Bush administration in a first-of-its-kind case to expand a royalty relief program for deep well natural gas and petrol exploration in publicly owned waters, despite record oil prices.
Kerr-McGee has since 2001 received international criticism for undertaking exploration for hydrocarbon resources offshore the Moroccan occupied area of Western Sahara. Shareholders have sold out of the company in protest. In June 2005, the Norwegian government sold its $52.7 million shares in the company, characterising Kerr-McGee's contract in Western Sahara as 'a particularly serious violation of fundamental ethical norms'. On May 2, 2006, the company declared its intention to no longer drill off the coast of the Sahara.
[edit] Karen Silkwood
It is believed that Karen Silkwood was contaminated with plutonium, while working at a Kerr-McGee nuclear plant. Her activism and November 1974 death were the subject of the 1983 film Silkwood.
